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Alnwickdotes: No 6 “Ginger” Northumbrian and Cambodian style!

I came across, one of the most fascinating stories of my
overseas aid career, purely by accident.This story apparently explains the existence of the Bunong indigenous
people in Cambodia, now in danger of dying out. Although they total around 30,000 in all, they are under much pressure to integrate in to mainstream Khmer Society.

Ginger did feature in our Northumbrian childhoods in the
1950s and 60s.It was popular in cakes
and home-made ginger beer.I doubt if
there was a school playground without one child nicknamed “Ginger” who was of
course one of our popular comic characters. And Rington's Ginger Snaps, if eaten morish-style straightaway, can't be beaten.

“Ginger” would have been the name of our pet pussy cat, to
follow on from “Korky” and “Dennis” also of course comic characters.But she was destined for something
better.Our village, Longhoughton, even
today still hosts the Royal Air Office, including the elite families of top
officers who live in Bader Crescent.One of those
families was posted away and needed a home for…….”Prudence”.We were also assured that “Pru” (with a
rolling “rrrrr”) was not a ginger tabby but a “Marmalade” cat, and of distinct class and breeding.

Ginger Puss in Cambodia

Pru, being a typical cat, was quite unconcerned about her
elite origins or her fall from grace by joining us.We continued her preferred diet of raw
liver, so she adopted and took over our home, duly switching her loyalty, no problem.

The years passed by and Pru expended the last of her nine
lives in the late 1960s. Ginger in its various forms does still crop up periodically. It has enjoyed hey-days since Eastern exotic foods became popular.It features today in Cambodian cooking, with “Fried-chicken-in-ginger” very popular.After John Sina, Sheamus the
ginger-haired Celtic wrestler, is a favourite on local TV.

Then in 2010, my knowledge and appreciation of ginger changed by accident
and dramatically.

I was up in Mondulkiri, the North-East Cambodian
Highlands.True-to-form I was alone at
the office at 8 am, the official opening time, and still locked out.Staff were seldom on time as is customary in
Cambodia.Many officials are still
taking breakfast or coffee at such an unearthly early hour.So I wandered around our traditional
medicinal plants garden.There I spotted the fine pink
flower, shown above, with a dew drop still visible on a stem.

Later, I asked my Botanist colleague, Nico Savajol, about it.We had to trace its story and importance for
Bunong people.Ginger, it seems has far
more properties and powers than we thought.

Story of Kun Tool (Zingiberaceae)

“In
the past there were only 30 Bunong women and 30 Bunong men living. At this time
they did not have midwives to assist deliveries. When somebody was pregnant,
they used to cut the belly to take the baby out and the mother died. There were
never more people, because of this practice.

One
day a man who loved his wife very much and was pregnant, did not want to lose
her. He did not know how to help her to deliver. So he went into the forest to
ask all the animals about their knowledge of deliveries.

After
several hours he felt tired and so relaxed under a tree called Tarm Rahayt. He
was just starting to fall asleep when he felt something fall on his head. Then
he looked up in the tree and he saw a monkey just about to deliver its baby.

The
husband looked more carefully and noticed that the male monkey was helping his
wife and giving her some kind of plant (ginger root). The monkey cut the plant
in pieces and put one on the mother’s forehead. The man watched very carefully.
The monkey put the ginger next to the vagina, while the man was still
observing. The monkey boiled the water and pressed on his wife’s abdomen. Then the
man asked the monkey: “How do you help your wife exactly to deliver? We are
used to cutting the belly to separate the baby but this is very dangerous and
they often die.” Then the monkey looked at the man and told him: “Humans, you
don’t need to open the belly of your wife. We monkeys have always used this
plant that we call Kun Tool to help our wives to deliver. Thanks to Kun Tool
both the baby and the woman can survive. I give you Kun Tool to take home and
you will be able to use it for your wife.”

After
the baby monkey was born safely, the man went back home to his wife. He practised
everything exactly as he saw with the monkey, gave his wife the plant and in
the end, the baby was born safely and the mother was still alive. Since that
time Bunong always use Kun Tool for their deliveries. That is why today, we
Bunong are a lot of people living in this world.”

This story is published in Nomad RSI's technical
publication. It explains the many medicinal uses of ginger, not just in
childbirth. Please contact me if you would like a copy. As with many Bunong stories, because it is a
spoken-only language, they are handed down from generation-to-generation. Too many stories in the memories of elders are
being forgotten. This why our Mondulkiri Cultural Centre is aiming to record as many as possible for posterity.

Finally to round off the story and give more credence
to it, the same google search about ginger revealed this Hindi proverb:

"What does a monkey know of the taste of
ginger?"

Meaning: someone who can't understand can't
appreciate.

I think all cats, ginger or any other shade, would endorse that sentiment!

Not part of the story, but wants to be, this Takhmau (Cambodia) Puss plonked himself or herself on my knee, with much purring, so deserves a place, even if he/she seems shocked to have his photo taken:

1 comment:

Just want to say thanks for sending me the book. It's fascinating and I am pleased that the authors are so respectful of traditional medicine. As you know, I am taking a brew for my leg. The last of the cartilage wore out a few years ago and I was hobbling around until my wife found the medicine. Within a week I was much better and have noticed slow but steady improvement in the past month. We have a lot to learn from indigenous healers in all parts of the world.